Macedonia in Eurovision Song Contest Odds

Eye Cue's track “Lost and Found” was selected by a panel of judges to be the one to represent Macedonia at the Eurovision Song Contest this year.

Eye Cue is a pop-rock duo from Macedonia consisting of vocalists Borjan Trajkovski and Marija Ivanovska. The band formed in 2008 and have become one of the most popular groups in the country. They have achieved chart success with their song “Magija” in 2008 and made it into the MTV Adria Top 20 in 2010 with the song “Not This Time”.

Borjan wrote the lyrics while Darko Dimitrov produced the song. The jury who decided on the winning song for Macedonia described Lost and Found as having a "modern sound, excellent vocal abilities and a very remarkable refrain and lyrics".

Darko Dimitrov is a great name of the country's environment, who worked with many big locales: Elena Risteska, the late Tose Proeski, Kaliopi, Tamara Todevska, Tijana Dapcevic, the late Esma, Vlatko Lozanoski. However, Dimitrov did not write solely for Macedonians: it is so well known throughout the Balkan area that it has supported big names also in Albania (Elhaida Dani, Juliana Pasha, Kejsi Tola, Aurela Gaçe), as well as in Montenegro (Sergej Cetkovic) and in Serbia (Jelena Tomasevic, Marija Serifovic, Zeljko Joksimovic).

In the statement issued by the MRT, it was revealed that “The chosen song has a contemporary sound, a refrain and an effect text, excellent and original vocal talents of the artists, which certainly offers the opportunity to have a quality Eurovision package and a respectable representation of the MRT.”

The track is very unique and it can either go one of two ways at the Eurovision Song Contest. It’ll either get lost amongst the many amazing genres and voices, or it will stand out. This year is going to be one of the most diverse contests we have ever seen, with almost all genres around the world being presented on stage.

Macedonia, at the beginning, would not even have had to participate in the Lisbon edition: a series of financial problems, at the beginning, had caused it to be excluded from the list of participants in the competition. However, the MRT managed to solve the financial problems with the EBU and was therefore re-admitted to the competition, leading to 43 countries in the race, a record reached twice by Eurovision (there were 43 competitors in 2008 and 2011).

Macedonia, at Eurovision, has never reached the top 10. Moreover, since 2007, only once has managed to enter the final, with "Crno i belo" of Kaliopi in Baku 2012.

Last year, according to many, it seemed the right time to repeat the final, but Jana Burceska did not sufficiently convince with "Dance alone". However, her participation will remain famous for another reason: her boyfriend, just after the closure of the televoting operations, pulled out a ring and asked her to marry her, sending the International Exhibition Center in Kiev to delirium.

Odds on Eurovision Song Contest 2018: Will Macedonia qualify for the final?